“SUNDAY SCHOOL CHILDREN SUPPORT HUNGER RELIEF ACT”

Children in the preschool and elementary grades at Saint Luke Lutheran Church, Silver Spring, Maryland, have found a way of plugging into the safe haven concept by advocating for children who are hungry.

As part of Saint Luke's Christian Education program, children learned about children who are hungry and talked about ways they could help. Hunger was discussed in ways that were age-appropriate. The elementary grade children were helped to think of a time when they were really hungry; a difficult task for most of them. They spoke about children they might know at school who had a special breakfast provided at school. Then they spoke about ways they might help.

Several suggestions were made by the children: bring food to the food pantry at the church; buy a hungry person a meal; make sandwiches for Martha's Table, which ministers to children in the inner city of the District of Columbia. No one, however, thought of helping by asking our legislators to give money to particular programs that help feed the hungry.

Once the children learned how to do this, they were most enthusiastic! They decorated plates and lunch bags with foods they liked to eat. The preschool children pasted a label on their plates/lunch bags with the Bible verse from Matthew 25:35 , "For I was hungry and you gave me food." They made another label that said they did not want children hungry, encouraging support of the Hunger Relief Act. The elementary school children wrote their own messages for their plates and lunch bags and looked at hunger from different perspectives.

The children then dedicated their projects as their offering at worship. The project was then distributed among the national legislators to encourage them to support the Hunger Relief Act, which will benefit hungry children in the United States.

Through this project, the children at Saint Luke were helped to see that support of those who do not have much of a voice is one way of creating a safer place for children.

For more information: Ann H. Nuss, Director of Christian Education, Saint Luke Lutheran Church, 9100 Colesville Road, Silver Spring, Maryland 20910; (301) 588-4363.